A liberal and a conservative were sitting in a bar. Then Bill Gates walked in.

[MRT144]

i live in san francisco, i have to put up with pinko commie liberal hippy socialists all the time...they are better than conservatives because at least they dont run the country...

[Ned]

IIRC the stats, the top 50% pay 96% of the taxes. The top 20% pay 76% of all taxes. Again, correct me if I am wrong.

How can one cut taxes and not have the benefits go to those who are paying them now - the higher income brackets?

[MRT144]

DONT ****ING CUT TAXES THEN! EASY SOLUTION!

JUST FOR ANGERING ME NED EVERY BOX GOING TO APTOS TODAYS IS GOING TO BE SMASHED! GAHHHHHHHHHH

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ned
How can one cut taxes and not have the benefits go to those who are paying them now - the higher income brackets?

By cutting taxes at the bottom end of the scale instead of the top end.

In other words, bump up the personal exemption.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Frogger




By cutting taxes at the bottom end of the scale instead of the top end.

In other words, bump up the personal exemption.

Bumping up the personal exemption does nothing for the 50% who don't pay taxes, whom, incidentally enough, are the "bottom 50%" of the income scale. In other words, regardless of what one does re: income taxes in this country, foolish and misleading cartoons like the one above will always be true... except, of course, in the manner in which the author intended.

But what does a little deceit matter anyway?

[MRT144]

i do pay taxes actually...and im the bottom 50%...so youre either stupid or lying...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by JohnT





Bumping up the personal exemption does nothing for the 50% who don't pay taxes, whom, incidentally enough, are the "bottom 50%" of the income scale.

Really now. 50% of wage-earners don't pay taxes?

Thank you, come again.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by MRT144
i do pay taxes actually...and im the bottom 50%...so youre either stupid or lying...

You know, I do NOT understand peoples need to disagree with insults. It is silly, immature, and does nothing for your reputation on this board, MRT.

A little research goes a long way. Why, my very second link on Google pointed me to the following IRS site:

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-soi/00in01rt.xls

Check out 149:G

If you are too bored or too disinterested to look, it states that the top 50% of wage earners paid over 96.09% of all Federal Income Taxes in the year 2000.

But then, somebody has to pay the 3.91% the rest of us aren't paying. Looks like you're it, MRT.

[KrazyHorse]

Up here in socialist Canada the personal exemption is ~8000$CAN and a minimum-wage job pays about 15000$CAN assuming a 40 hour work week. And the median income is ~25000$CAN...

[JohnT]

"If you are too bored or too disinterested to look, it states that the top 50% of wage earners paid over 96.09% of all Federal Income Taxes in the year 2000."

Let me reiterate before somebody starts whining about FICA, state taxes, etc.: Federal Income Taxes is what the cartoon, and my comment, is about.

[KrazyHorse]

John, you need to go back to school. You said that the bottom 50% don't pay taxes. Which they do. So upping the personal exemption would positively affect their tax burden more heavily per unit tax dollar collected than would an across the board tax cut.

In other words, assuming your numbers are correct the upper half would get 90% of benefit or something instead of 96%.

[MRT144]

sorry for the insults, it just angers me when people think im getting by like a freeloader. and my reputation here is already tainted...

And i do pay federal income taxes, albiet a couple hundred dollars.

of course i would be more likely to spend the money i dont pay in taxes rather than save it like a rich person would likely do.

[KrazyHorse]

And this also says nothing about the dividend tax cut, which impacts the rich more heavily than proportional (since stock ownership increases faster than linearly with income).

[JohnT]

Dividends... income... People, what is it about this that you do not understand? Are you congentially unable to follow simple financial concepts that do not come from economic textbooks? Or are you just wanting to redefine the terms in ways that nobody, including the IRS, agrees with?

Even the IRS admits that, for 1/2 of all income earners in this country, the Federal Income Tax is moot. Take it up with them if you disagree - I'm just reporting what they say. Don't like it? That is not my problem.

[MRT144]

so yes, im that 3.91% who makes up the rest of the taxpayers. does that mean i dont pay taxes? the two facts arent mutually exclusive...